October 10, 2011 - Imec and tool vendor ASML have signed a new 5-year deal to continue collaboration on lithography technologies, both immersion and EUV, through 2015. In November Imec is slated to install ASML's NXT 1950i 193nm immersion litho tool, and eventually will upgrade its current ASML NXE:3100 preproduction tool to a "production-ready" NXE:3300B system. (Imec, along with Albany CNSE, were the first two public recipients of ASML's alpha EUV tools). The deal also includes ASML's computational lithography tools and the company's Yieldstar S200 metrology platform.



ASML preproduction scanner NXE:3100 for extreme UV lithography, installed at imec’s 300mm cleanroom. (Source: IMEC)


"Imec has been a development center for ASML to test the stability of and optimize its most advanced tools in a reliable environment together with the entire semiconductor ecosystem," said Luc Van den hove, imec president/CEO, in a statement. "This agreement is a confirmation of our long-term strategic and fruitful partnership." That close partnership, added Martin van den Brink, ASML's CTO, "has given our joint customers early insights and learning into the capabilities of new chip manufacturing solutions, paving the way for their technology leadership and commercial success."

Among their collaborative litho work already bearing fruit are new sensors to help calibrate lens alignment and irradiation dose, thus improving overlay and critical dimension (CD) performance. Imec says it has qualified a chipset consisting of custom EUV sensor dies: two of the sensors, designed to calibrate, align, and focus the tool’s lens systems (and are now being integrated into NXE:3100 tools out in the field), while a third sensor monitors the EUV dose. Development and qualification of the different sensors for the upcoming NXE:3300 will occur by end of this year, imec says.

This work is alongside other custom-chip development within imec's CMORE initiative, alongside technology from other areas ranging from bio-sensing to energy and power management and high-end specialty imaging.



Wafer with EUV sensor dies, produced on imec’s 200mm CMORE line. (Source: IMEC)